GM sets 4G LTE pricing for its cars: Different from Audi, still not cheap

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4G LTE in GM cars will cost between $5 and $50 per month for data on top of the $20 to $30 per month that you already pay for OnStar telematics. It rolls out later this year on three dozen GM cars. Audi in March announced 4G LTE service that costs twice as much as GM’s monthly plan but the data can be spread over a six-month window. Plan variants mean both sides can claim to be cheaper-better-faster than the competition.

Both plans presume optimistically low data usage if people in back are doing more than texting. When customers switch from 3G to 4G, they starting watching videos. GM’s $50 for 5GB equals seven Netflix videos streamed at medium quality. GM is offering four use-it-or-lose-it monthly plans; a $5 day pass of 250MB for one day for occasional travelers; and to compete with Audi’s longer-duration plans, 10GB over 12 months at $150-$200.

OnStar may have life in it yet

OnStar has been fumbling its way to legitimacy for almost two decades. 4G is helping GM turn the corner. Customers see value in the daily services of OnStar such as remote door unlock, parking lot locater, or cold weather engine start. The safety aspect, that you’ll lie upside down in a remote ravine for hours without emergency crash notification didn’t resonate so much because it didn’t happen often. (Hyundai offers a barebones safety package for $80 per year.)

But GM soldiered on, helped by cheaper hardware that made 3G cost less than $100 (their price), and it’s on virtually every GM car and SUV now. At this point, the cost is almost a non-factor in the price of the car, and your car may reduce warranty costs because it can notify the dealer of a small problem before it becomes a costly big problem. You could use your cellphone as a WiFi hotspot, but with OnStar handling the bandwidth-fetching, you get better coverage because of the roof-mounted antenna. That is, as long as you’re near an AT&T tower. GM in the past year switched away from Verizon.

How the pricing stacks up

Here’s how GM prices the OnStar data plan. Unused data doesn’t carry over to the next period.

200 MB per month = $5 ($10 without Directions & Connections plan)

1GB per month = $15 ($20 without Directions & Connections)

3GB per month = $30

5GB per month = $50

250 MB for one day = $5

10GB over 12 months = $150 ($200 without Directions & Connections)

AT&T Share Plan customers = $10 per month per GM car

To use OnStar 4G, you need a 2015 GM car with 4G capability and one of the underlying OnStar telematics packages. Safe & Sound runs $20 per month or $200 per year, $360 for two years, or $500 for three years. The advisor-based Directions & Connections package is $30 per month, $300 for two years, $550 for three years, or $730 for three years. Directions & Connections gives you the $5 per month discount on the two lowest-use plans.

The Audi 4G program started with the new 2015 A3. Audi’s current choices are 5GB per six months for $100, or 30GB per 30 months for $500. Audi buyers get six months free coverage, so six plus 30 months equals a typical three-year lease. Look for Audi to offer short-term packages as competition heats up.

Can you live on 200MB or 1GB per month?

Car rides just got a whole lot more expensive, with streaming Netflix

For a commuter who updates his or her iPad en route to work or fetches email on a laptop, the cheap plans may be fine. But when a group travels, especially families, there may never be a data plan large enough, or affordable enough. GM cites Strategy Analytics and says 91% of tablets in North America are used with only a WiFi connection, even though one in four sold this year may have an unused cellular modem embedded. So it’s clear there’s a need for in-car WiFi. But are the data plans the right size?

According to GM, this is what you can do with the cheapest, 200 MB plan: stream 6.5 hours of music, browse the web for 13 hours, or send 10,000 no-attachments emails. Notice they don’t mention cat videos, YouTube or Netflix. If you’re going to watch videos, and that’s what 4G is good at, Netflix says these are its video data bandwidth rates: up to 0.3GB per hour for low data rate, 0.7GB per hour for medium, 1GB per hour for high, 2.8GB per hour for 1080p. For each 90-minute video, you’d use 0.45GB, 1.05GB, 1.5GB, or 4.2GB, respectively.

That’s a buck a movie at the medium rate — not bad if kids just watch Frozen and the Lego Movie on the summer vacation trip. But what if they expect video every time they’re carpooling, and what if each of the four kids in back is watching a different video? And what if they’re watching at the max video rate? The costs could add up. Wouldn’t it be nice if your kid’s iPad front camera watched for sleepy eyes and stopped the stream when they’re closed?

Why not just roll your own WiFi hotspot?

You don’t need any of the hotspot data plans to use OnStar’s safety service, and you don’t need a new car to get a hotspot. A data modem is typically under $100 (some are free with a service plan). Look for one that has an antenna jack or get a mounting bracket with an inductive antenna coupler, then have an electronics shop mount an external antenna. This may appeal especially if you’re not an AT&T customer. If you buy a 2015 GM vehicle, you can always change your mind. GM embeds the WiFi hotspot as well as OnStar in every vehicle, you get three months of free service, and it’s there to be reactivated later.

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